


Head Over Heels

by JoMo3



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-10-27 15:41:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17769569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoMo3/pseuds/JoMo3
Summary: Mike shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s a saying; an idiom.”“Idi...what?”“Idioms. They’re a way of saying something without, you know, actually saying it.”“Why wouldn’t you just say what you mean?”“I don’t know,” he repeated. “It’s just the way people talk sometimes.”“It’s stupid,” she said, more to herself than him.“Yeah, I know.”Eleven discovers a new way of saying things (idioms).





	Head Over Heels

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by "Whatever Floats Your Boat" by Lborealis

_ Sadie Hawkins! Have You Asked  _ _ Your _ _ Sweetheart? _

 

Eleven scrunched her face, confused at the sign on the wall. Recently red and white construction paper signs had began appearing in the halls of Hawkins High School. She’d honestly never given them a glance until now. She probably would’ve continued not paying attention to them if her friend, Max, hadn’t forgotten her book in her locker. The two girls were in the hallway, minutes before the bell rang for their last class of the day; Max digging through her locker while El waited patiently against a nearby wall.

“Max?” she asked, turning to her friend. 

“What?” she could hear Max, but couldn’t see her; the redhead’s face was on the other side of the locker door. “Can’t find this damn book…”

“What is Sadie Hawkins? Is that who the town is named after?”

Max snorted a laugh. “No, it’s not.”

“Then what is it?”

Max sighed, and closed her locker. “Screw it. Guess I’m not going to have my book today.”

It was the beginning of February in Hawkins, IN. The summer of ‘85 had passed, and with it came El’s first foray into school. Now five months in, she had a handle on most things a girl her age should know-things such as lockers, teachers, makeup, buses, homerooms, and school cliques were things she’d become all too familiar with. She now felt she knew everything there was to know about high school.

Except this sign.

“So what is it?” she asked.

“What’s what?”

“Sadie Hawkins.”

“Oh! It’s a dance.”

El’s face brightened. “Like the Snowball?”

“Yeah, like the Snowball. Except the girls are supposed to ask the guys.” The two girls began the walk to their last class of the day, chemistry.

“Why?”

Max sighed. Since the two had become friends, one thing that’d taken some getting used to was El’s constant “why?” questioning. “It’s just switching things around, I guess. Since the guy usually asks the girl.”

“But I ask Mike to do things all the time.”

“Yeah, but for, you know, dances and stuff, most times the guy asks. So this is different. Besides, Mike is always bending over backwards for you, this’ll give him a break.”

El paused at the unfamiliar phrase:  _ bending over backwards? _ She began to ask what it meant, as she didn’t recall Mike being overly flexible. But she figured this was another thing that most people her age knew. Instead, she said “Oh. Are you going to ask Lucas?”

Max shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

The two continued walking to class, with El already thinking of discussing this dance with Mike.

 

After school the party assembled at their usual spot, Mike’s basement, to work on their homework. Dustin, Lucas, and Will sat crowded around Mike’s game table while the couch held Mike on one end, Eleven in the middle, and Max on the other arm. The talk ranged from their classes to schoolwide gossip to upcoming movies. When their work was coming to an end, the topic changed to the upcoming dance.

“I think Chrissy Miller’s going to ask me,” Dustin boasted. “I’m telling you, I can  _ feel _ it.”

“How do you know?” Will asked. “She barely even talks to you.”

“It’s these pearls, man,” he said with his signature smile. “Purrrrrr.”

“Didn’t we ask you to stop doing that?” Lucas asked.

“No girl’s going to say anything to you if you sound like a cat,” Max said.

“Chrissy will,” Dustin said, putting on his backpack. “She’s got the hots for me.”

Eleven scrunched her eyebrows, confused again.  _ Got the hots? Was Chrissy sick? _ She filed it away, remembering to ask Mike about it.

“What about you, Max?” Lucas asked, waggling his eyebrows. “Is there anyone  _ you _ want to ask?”

The redhead rolled her eyes. “Hold your horses, stalker. The dance isn’t for another few weeks.”

_ Hold your horses? _ Eleven thought.  _ Did Lucas have a horse? _

Shrugging, Max teased her boyfriend with “Besides, I may meet someone before then.”

“What!?”

She bumped him with her shoulder. “Gosh, you’re gullible.”

 

The group said their goodbyes, with El staying behind. Hopper wasn’t due to get off of work for another few hours, and after her almost two years of isolation, El didn’t like being home alone.

With their friends gone, Mike and Eleven settled onto the couch, sitting on opposite ends. Mike worked in his notebook, working on the new D & D campaign. El, on the other end, was flipping through a book nervously. After a few minutes of silence, Eleven closed the book and looked at the boy across from her. “Um...Mike?”

“Yeah, El?” he asked, looking up.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Yeah, sure.” He closed his notebook and felt a smile come to his face. With the talk of the Sadie Hawkins dance, he figured it was only a matter of time before El asked him. “What is it?”

“What does ‘hold your horses’ mean?”

Mike frowned; he wasn’t expecting that question. “Uh...what?”

“Earlier,” she explained, “Max told Lucas to ‘hold his horses.’ Does he have horses at his house?”

Mike felt himself begin to chuckle but bit the inside of his cheek, not wanting to laugh at his poor, innocent girlfriend. “No,” he said, shaking his head. “No, that’s just a way of saying ‘be patient’.”

“Oh.” Now Eleven frowned, even more confused. “So...Lucas doesn’t have any horses?”

Mike couldn’t help but smile at how adorable El was. “No, Max was telling him to slow down.”

“Why didn’t Max just say that?”

Mike shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s a saying; an idiom.”

“Idi...what?”

“Idioms. They’re a way of saying something without, you know, actually saying it.”

“Why wouldn’t you just say what you mean?”

“I don’t know,” he repeated. “It’s just the way people talk sometimes.”

“It’s stupid,” she said, more to herself than him.

“Yeah, I know.”

She thought for a moment, and remembered something Dustin had said. “Is ‘got the hots’ one too? Dustin said that about Chrissy Miller.”

“Yeah. It means she thinks he’s cute.” Mike shook his head. “I don’t think she does, but whatever…”

“What are some other…” She paused, remembering the word Mike had used. “Idioms.”

“Well, uh...there’s ‘break a leg’.”

She tilted her head. “And it doesn’t mean someone should break their leg?”

“No, it means good luck.”

“Good luck?” El looked utterly lost, and Mike couldn’t get over how cute she looked, scrunching her eyebrows. “But if you broke your leg, that’s not good luck. It’s...it’s the opposite.”

“Yeah, El, I know,” he said patiently. Mike thought for a second, then said “There’s, um...well, when I was little and I’d stay home from school, my mom would say I was ‘under the weather’.”

“Under the weather? I don’t get it.”

“It means you’re sick.”

Eleven shook her head. “Why does being under something make you sick? These are dumb.”

He nodded in agreement. “Um...what about ‘pulling your leg’?”

She looked down at her leg. Glancing back up, she asked “What?”

“It means you’re joking with somebody.”

She rested her head on his shoulder. “Just when I think I understand something,  _ this _ happens.”

Mike kissed the top of her head. “I know. But hang in there, you’ll get it.”

Her head shot up. “Hang in there?”

“Whoops, sorry; that’s another one. It means just...don’t give up.”

El let out a sigh. “People need to say what they mean, Mike.”

“I know.”

 

Over the next few days El found herself listening more intently to what people said and the way they talked, trying to identify any other idioms. She heard a few, and would go to Mike about them.

One day in her reading class, she read a phrase she didn’t understand,  _ head over heels _ . She had filed it away in her mind to ask Mike about later when her teacher, Mrs. Smith, decided to bring it up in the class discussion.

“Now in this chapter,” Mrs. Smith said after the class had read, “Peter is ‘head over heels’ about Alice. The author uses the idiom to tell the reader how in love he is with her, and how much he cares for her. If you recall at the beginning of the book, neither one cared for the other. But now as time has passed, they…”

Eleven wrote it down,  _ head over heels. _ It made her think of Mike.

 

After school she and Mike sat in his basement, both trying to get their homework finished before they met their friends at The Palace. Eleven finished hers, but when she glanced at her boyfriend she could tell he wasn’t done yet.

“Almost done?” she asked, closing her notebook.

Without looking up, Mike said “Almost. I’ve got another page or so to do.”

El huffed, ready to go.

Mike shook his head. “Give me a couple more minutes El, then I’ll call it a day.” Out of the corner of his eye he could see her confusion. “Dammit, sorry. That’s another idiom.”

“What’s  _ that _ one mean?”

“It means to stop working on something.”

“Oh.” She smiled, remembering her class hours ago. “I learned a new one today,” she told him, “That made me think of you.”

“Yeah? Which one?”

“Head over heels.”

He blushed. “You...do you know what that means?”

“Mm-hm,” she answered with a nod. “It means you really like someone, you care about them, and you love them.”

Mike’s blush grew at hearing the “l” word. “And you...you feel that way about me?”

She nodded, and leaned closer and gave him a brief kiss. When she pulled away, Mike started to say something but she spoke first, asking “Will you go to Sadie Hawkins with me?”

Mike, about to speak, nodded saying “Yeah! I mean...you want to go with me?”

She smiled. “Of course I want to go with you, goofball.” Her own blush appearing, she said “I’m head over heels about you, Mike.”

Now Mike put his book down. Holding her face, he brought her in for another kiss. “I’m head over heels about you, too, El” he told her after.

The homework now forgotten, the two snuggled on the couch, too happy to do work and too giddy to leave for the Palace just yet. They knew their friends would be upset about their being late, but they didn’t care; they were head over heels for each other.


End file.
